(Newser)
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Chances are you've heard about the "affluenza" defense that enabled a Texas teenager who killed four people while driving drunk to escape jail time this week. Well, the psychologist who used it in court wishes that weren't so. “I wish I had never used the term,” psychologist G. Dick Miller told Anderson Cooper on CNN last night. "Everyone has latched on to it.” Miller helped get Ethan Couch probation instead of jail by arguing that he was a privileged rich kid whose parents never taught him right from wrong.

Miller went on to explain that he has personally used the term for years to describe what he sees as a national problem. “We all suffer from affluenza,” he said. "We have a nation doing that.” The fact that there seems to be "no real science or school of psychological thought" behind the concept will probably trigger more anger, writes John Luciew at the Patriot-News. All in all, it was a "frustrating" interview, adds Josh Voorhees at Slate. He'd much rather hear from the judge who bought the argument and issued the sentence. But so far, Judge Jean Boyd hasn't spoken publicly about it.

I want to see the parents charged with child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor and hit with a multi-million dollar civil suit.

$82496178

Dec 14, 2013 3:01 PM CST

Nothing worse than a belief system masquerading as a science. Too many psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and social workers operate out of a deeply flawed notion of what makes humans tick -- and they are quick to impose their beliefs on the rest of us.

SDLakeshore

Dec 14, 2013 12:27 PM CST

Psychology and law mix like drinking and driving. Somebody got a payoff. There is no other reasonable explanation. The judge hasn't spoken yet because he is still counting his money. The wrong people got their reparations, and the grieving father and husband got nothing. And people wonder why vigilantes exist.